Top 6 choices for home gyms:
1. Rubber Horse Stall Mat
These heavy and dense rubber mats, designed to be placed in horse stalls for easing the horse’s knee joints, do get used in gyms and exercise rooms.
Even though the edges do not interlock, some owners report that the edges do not curl or lift due to the sheer weight of the mats, while other owners say that stall mats definitely have prominent edges.
2. Virgin Rubber Floor Tiles
Many gym flooring tiles say “rubber” when they aren’t. This is real rubber, and this is the type of stuff your local gym might use. If price is no object, this is what you want.
It’s 100% virgin, not recycled, rubber formed into 24″ x 24″ mats, 3/8″ thick, with a slick pebbled surfaced that the industry calls “hammered.” Closed cell construction means it doesn’t absorb moisture and the shiny surface means it’s easy to clean.
Virgin rubber doesn’t come with the unpleasant odors that recycled rubber does–heady chemical scents hardly being conducive to hard exercise.
3. Cork flooring
This flooring has been in vogue the past few years because it is an eco-friendly material (100% renewable and biodegradable). Because cork is soft, it seems like it could serve as gym flooring. Can it?
Cork will absorb some impact, but not as much as the name implies. I find that cork is only a little more impact-resistant than a good sheet vinyl flooring. Another downside is that cork will tear is a piece of gym equipment is dragged across it.
4. Interlocking EVA Foam Tiles
This is typically the first gym-friendly flooring you encounter at home improvement stores. It stares you in the face, pleading, “Buy me, buy me!”
EVA (Ethylene vinyl acetate) foam is light-weight and easy to obtain. It comes in a myriad of pretty colors. That’s about it for the positives.
The downside is that EVA foam dents easily and does not decompress well. Dropped weights have the unfortunate tendency to bounce back, creating a hazard. The surface is mushy and unstable, especially when you are holding heavy weights.
These mats are best used in children’s playrooms, not home gyms.
5. Cabin- or Utility-Grade Wood Flooring
Utility grade wood flooring is found in only the darkest, most remote regions of your local Lumber Liquidators or other wood flooring supply store. They don’t like to advertise it, because it’s not suitable for most residential use and because it’s so cheap.
It’s hardly a gym floor. Not only does it splinter with dropped weights, it’s of such low grade that it practically comes pre-splintered. This wood floor is meant for shops: lawn mowers, rakes, drill presses, that type of thing.
For gym purposes, we would only recommend it for the heaviest duty weight lifters. It’s only one step up from using plywood as gym flooring.
6. Laminate Flooring
The only thing worse for gyms than solid wood flooring is laminate flooring. Laminate will dent and scratch, and if it does, you have no recourse. Unlike wood flooring, it cannot be sanded down. On top of all of that, laminate is slippery.
If light exercise is your only aim, and you won’t be installing any machines or using free weights, laminate is fine.
Courtesy of homerenovations.about.com
